If those pollen-packing honey bees were to board an aircraft, they’d be charged for their carry-on luggage.

Fortunately they don’t and they’re not.

And if we were a bee, we’d have to visit two million flowers to make a pound of honey.

Fortunately we’re not, and we don’t.

The honey bee, brought to America by the European colonists in the 1600s, will be celebrated on National Honey Bee Awareness Day, Saturday, Aug. 21, but this insect should be celebrated every day of the year.

Revered for her indispensable pollination services, she also provides us with that liquid gold we call honey. Wonderful, delectable, soothing honey.

This week the UC Davis beekeepers are extracting honey — uncapping the combs with an electric knife, spinning the frames through the centrifugal-force honey extractor, and then gathering the flow of honey.